al-Nadr ibn Shumayl

Al-Nadr ibn Shumayl was born in Marw al-Rūdh in 740 CE and raised in Basra, where he studied hadith, fiqh, grammar, lexicography, and Arab history. He belonged to the Banū Māzin branch of the Banū Tamīm tribe. He spent around forty years living among the Bedouin, mastering the Arabic language. Unable to sustain himself financially in Basra, he moved to Marw al-Shāhijān, where he served as a qāḍī and helped establish the sunna in Khorasan. He was a student of al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad and wrote an introduction to Kitāb al-ʿAyn. Al-Nadr attended the majlis of al-Maʾmūn, who rewarded him for his grammar and poetry. He died in 819 or 820 CE, though some sources confuse him with another scholar. His works, including the pioneering Kitāb al-ṣifāt fi ʾl-lugha, have not survived but influenced later scholars.